1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of currency processing, and, more specifically, to a modification to a currency processing device with methods of use for automatically and independently verifying the integrity of currency processing policies and procedures as practiced by banks.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
A central banking system typically handles billions of dollars in bank notes on a given business day. Each of these individual notes must be evaluated for fitness prior to its redistribution to a depository institution and, ultimately, to the public. To process such a staggering number of notes, the central bank outsources the fitness sorting duties to other banks and depository institutions. Sometimes these banks and depository institutions must even outsource their fitness sorting duty to other third party processors.
As bank notes are used by the public, they are subject to abuse and wear that may render them unfit for further circulation. A note may become torn or soiled to the point that it is difficult to determine its denomination. Further, the central bank periodically pulls certain series of notes from circulation in order to introduce a new series or design. For example, a new series of notes may be required to honor a certain dignitary or luminary.
The fitness sorting criteria for bank notes is fairly standard. When evaluating a bank note for fitness, the processor usually must determine if the note is (a) the correct denomination; (b) genuine, and not a counterfeit; (c) a series approved for recirculation; (d) free from excessive holes, tears, tape, or otherwise folded or partially missing; (e) has uniform brightness and is free from excessive soiling; and (f) is free from excessive wear, particularly in the portrait area. To perform this fitness sorting on such a large volume of notes, automated currency sorting and counting machines are often utilized.
A typical sorting machine as used by a bank note processor is shown in FIG. 1. A random stack of bank notes is place in the input receptacle. A feeder device feeds one note at a time through the machine along a transport path toward output receptacles. As the notes traverse the path, sensors detect and evaluate the individual notes. A flip-type counting machine is shown in FIG. 2. This type of machine follows a similar process in that a stack of bank notes is placed in the input hopper. A flipping device moves one note at a time to the output receptacle, counting and evaluating for fitness each individual note. For each machine, fitness data is captured for use by the central bank.
The central bank is ultimately responsible for the quality and quantity of circulating bank notes. As such, it relies heavily on bank note fitness data and statistics reported to it by bank note processors. Each processor must therefore ensure that its sorting machine sensors are consistent across all sites/processes/equipment, are properly calibrated, and are returning accurate data. However, processors often fail to maintain and properly calibrate these sensors for various reasons.
Certain bank processors may not want their machines reporting accurately because of potential penalties that may be imposed by the central bank. For example, the bank note processor may be fined if the machine throughput is too low, or if too many counterfeit bills are detected. Discovery of a counterfeit note yields substantial inconvenience to a bank note processor; bureaucratic investigative services must be engaged in order to track the counterfeit note's origin.
Further, if the machine is calibrated properly it may reject too many notes due to damage, soil, or excessive wear. The bank note processor might be penalized for rejecting too many notes by not having enough remaining notes with which to conduct business or by incurring excess cross-shipping fees when ordering new notes. Thus, substantial disincentives exist for bank note processors to maintain proper calibration and to report accurate note fitness statistics.
Many bank note processing equipment vendors build automated reporting and auditing capabilities into their processing equipment. These capabilities are often provided by specialized software that utilizes data obtained from the original detectors and sensors. Consequently, this attempted solution may induce the same inaccuracies into the supposedly “objective” auditing data. This is so because it does not consider the fact that sensor calibration may have been altered. Therefore, this is not a true independent objective source of auditing data.
Accordingly, a need exists for a modification to bank note processing machine to provide independent verification of bank note processing that is unrelated to any detecting or computing portions of the given machine. Further, this modification should allow independent detection of manual manipulation by a processor of the sensors on a bank note processing machine. Further, this modification should be installable on existing bank note processing machines to preclude purchase of additional systems. Further still, this modification should operate automatically and independently, yet in unison with the machine's onboard sensors such that it does not impede the speed and efficiency of the overall fitness sorting or counting process. Further still, this modification should automatically report this independent verification data to the central bank or commercial organization for ease of processing. The present invention is intended to satisfy these need and others.